Hi Nadine Carroll; Re: "Yes, the Hebron settlers are extremists in anybody's book. However, last night they were just walking home from the Cave of the Patriarchs. Do you support the Palestinian efforts to shoot them?"
This is not an accurate description of the actions Friday. Apparently the Israeli military got beat by Palestinian guerillas, no Israeli civilians involved:
Militants kill top colonel in Hebron ambush
Justin Huggler, Independent.co.uk
Israeli armoured vehicles poured into Hebron last night, as it emerged that nine of the 12 Israelis killed in an ambush here on Friday were soldiers or members of the paramilitary border police.
Among them was the Israeli army commander in Hebron, Colonel Dror Weinberg – the most senior officer to die in the two-year intifada. The other three dead were armed Jewish settlers who had rushed to the help of the soldiers.
The killings, the work of Palestinian militants most Israelis thought were all but beaten by sheer military force, are a body blow to the Israeli army. It appears it may have been the work of only three gunmen, who were all killed in the fighting. The hardline militant group Islamic Jihad took responsibility.
In Hebron yesterday it was clear that the ambush was meticulously planned. Palestinian gunmen first attacked a border police jeep patrolling the area, the Israeli army said. Then, when soldiers ran after the gunmen, they fell back into the narrow lanes, leading the army into a trap. The fighting went on for more than an hour and a half.
Blood was still smeared across the road in Wadi Nasara, the Valley of the Christians, where the ambush took place. Surgical gloves lay on the streets where ambulance crews had tried to save the wounded.
The road here is popularly known as "Worshippers' Lane" among Jews, because it is used by Jewish settlers to walk through Palestinian districts of Hebron to pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, one of the holiest sites in the West Bank, sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
The road runs through a narrow valley. Up the steep slope on one side lies Hebron's Old City and the Tomb. On the other are the modern blocks and security fence of the Jewish settlement of Qiryat Arba, with Palestinian houses close by. It is a prime spot for an ambush.
Palestinians in Hebron seethe with resentment. They are often forced to remain under curfew in their houses, so that settlers can walk safely through the streets. About 450 settlers have moved into the Old City, and are slowly taking over more and more of it as Palestinians are forced out.
To protect the settlers, there was a routine. On Friday nights, when they went to pray at the Tomb, security forces were stationed in Wadi Nasara to protect the settlers, while border police vehicles patrolled the streets of Palestinian houses to the side.
It was a routine that had taken place many times before, and the gunmen must have known it well. At 7.30pm, the border police jeep was attacked by two men. Hamoud Jabr, a local Palestinian, said he heard the gunmen throw a grenade at the jeep. The blast broke through its armour plating, killing the four border police inside.
Meanwhile, the army said, a third gunman started firing on "Worshippers' Lane". Colonel Noam Tibon, who took over from the dead Col Weinberg, recounted yesterday how soldiers ran after the gunmen into a carefully laid trap.
This was not a "Sabbath Massacre" of civilians, as the Israeli Foreign Ministry claimed on Friday. None of the dead were worshippers. Most would have returned to Qiryat Arba before the attack took place, which would explain why only soldiers and those helping them were killed.
Islamic Jihad have often targeted, and mercilessly killed, Israeli civilians, but the deaths of so many uniformed men will be much more of a shock to ordinary Israelis than an massacre of unarmed settlers. Many Israelis resent the extremist behaviour of settlers in Hebron, which they believe is damaging chances of peace, and many soldiers resent being forced to guard them.
"The Palestinians definitely have reason to worry about the response of the settlers," said Jonathan Stern, a resident of Qiryat Arba. There were murmurings that the settlers were planning their own revenge; it would not be the first time settlers have attacked Palestinian civilians in Hebron. "This is a huge problem. We will do whatever we can to bring law and order," Colonel Tibon said yesterday.
But the first Israeli retribution was already visible. As the colonel spoke, a Palestinian woman shouted angrily from the rubble of her house nearby. The Israeli army demolished it, he said, because the gunmen had fired from its windows. When asked whether the family who lived in the house had anything to do with the attack, his answer was revealing. "Yes and no," he said. "This war is an ugly war. Sometimes both sides take steps" – he hesitated – "which are really tough".
There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli government last night because of the Jewish Sabbath, but Ariel Sharon's government will come under pressure to retaliate harshly.
There are already renewed calls for Yasser Arafat to be expelled – something the United States has made clear it does not want at the moment. But with the army already in most West Bank cities, the Israelis are running out of options.
news.independent.co.uk
Nearly a year ago, you posted a link to a photograph of a "before" and "after" photos of a Palestinian guerilla. It was obvious that he had not the slightest idea of how to fight well. My response was that it was universal human nature to improve the fighting quality as time goes on in a society at war, and that since Israel's forces were already so professional, that therefore the trend was against them. About at the same time, a Palestinian sniper killed several soldiers at a barricade and then got away.
What Israel really needs to fear from the Palestinians is the slow increase in professionalism of their guerilla forces. You have to admit that the Friday actions were a textbook quality example of a guerilla force ambusing a superior occupying force.
Come on admit it. The Israelis got their butts kicked Friday. Israel is what, 50x smaller than the US? The loss of 12 soldiers would be equivalent to the US losing 600, which is far in excess of what Custer went down with when he failed to take into account how many Indians he was attacking. This is the face of the future. Get used to it.
During this conservative Israeli administration there has been no letup in the death rates of Israelis. There have been ups and downs, but the fact is that the conservatives have brought the country no peace. Eventually the voters are going to get tired of this and they will try the (useless) left wing parties again. That will give the Palestinians an opportunity to hone their training with the advantage of this much more experience. The trend is that the Palestinians are becoming steadily more effective, while the Israelis are not improving.
And the whole thing also reads on the issue of what an invasion of Baghdad would be like. Do we really want American soldiers to be shot down 12 at a time? Baghdad has weapons a hell of a lot better than those grenades and rifles that the Palestinians have. In addition, Iraq is a hell of a lot bigger.
If we ever get our foreign policy so closely allied with the Israelis that the Palestinians start running operations against the continental US, I shudder to imagine the result. Our citizens aren't used to walking around with machine guns.
-- Carl
Thanks to an SI member for the link (via PM). |
